Kings-Wings on rivalry night! More like rhyme-alry, amirite? No? Okay, fine. I don't understand why this is a "rivalry", unless for some reason NBC thinks that one thing over a decade ago is still fresh in everybody's minds. (Before you get irate: yes, the Frenzy was very special, but I don't think a strong argument can be made that it fomented what could be called a real rivalry.) But hey, the Kings get to be on national TV against the Red Wings and that has worked out for them lately, right? No? Damn.

I'm not going to talk about the Kings' last game versus the Wings because we all remember how that one went down, and I was there, and I'm still kind of mad about it. Let's set the stage for this game instead: the Kings are coming off of a 5-2 victory against Anaheim, while Detroit put eight past Luongo in a decisive victory in their last game. The Wings sit eighth in the West, with 19 GP and 21 points, while a full slate of games last night bumped the Kings back down to tenth, with 17 GP and 20 points. The last game between these teams didn't turn out the way we wanted it to, but it featured some pretty good hockey, so at least we can look forward to that.